A Foolish Business Venture
by DracoSlayer95
Summary: After her latest concoction fails to meet the numbers Gust had hoped to achieve in sales, Nisa gives her a new idea on how to make back the money she'd spent in creating the darn thing. Probably not her greatest idea, but it's not like anything too bad could happen to them because of it... Right?


What was an alchemist to do to make a quick buck? Well, for the short alchemist by the name of Gust, she had a healthy business built out of selling her products. Some of the finest across all the lands of Gamindustri even. Granted, the success did kind of get to the young alchemist's head to a certain degree, but that's to be expected of someone riding the waves of success as skillfully as Gust was. In a way, she had earned her right to be a greedy, but then again, being greedy is rarely ever a good thing to be, especially when that someone wanted to make as much money as possible with minimal effort on her part.

Thus, that leads to Gust's current predicament. Somehow, her potions and goods just didn't seem to be selling as well as she had hoped they would. They might have been new, but they had a lot of time and effort put into them easily making them some of Gust's finest work to date. And yet people still weren't very interested for whatever reason, which basically meant that Gust wasn't making as much of a profit was she would have liked to.

Even as she sat down to think of what she could do to sweeten the deal and increase her revenue, her mind was drawing a Blanc. The only real option that she could picture working now would just be to move on to something else entirely and start working on a new potion from scratch. But that idea just didn't sit well with Gust at all, seeing as how she'd spent so much time and effort, and most importantly, her funds, in making the darn thing that she'd basically just be losing money, and Gust did not like losing hard earned money.

"Hey there, Gusty!" Suddenly, a voice called out to the short alchemist, drawing her out of her own thoughts to meet the person talking to her. "What are you doing just sitting around? There is justice yet to be served and evildoers in need of a good boot in their faces." Unfortunately, said voice happened to belong to the psychotic heroine of justice people knew as Nisa. Needless to say, but Gust wasn't quite a big fan of spending too much time with someone who could quite possibly drive her insane with her mere presence.

"Gust not sidekick. Been through this," Gust replied nonchalantly as she stood from her seat. For the past few weeks Nisa had been doing a good job of leaving Gust alone, so why did she have to show up now of all times? "Besides, Gust is busy thinking of solution to current conundrum."

"Come on, Gusty! I know exactly what will turn that frown upside down. A good old fashioned dose of justice is exactly what the doctor ordered!" Nisa replied proudly, fire burning intensely in her eyes. Heck, it almost looked like she was going to set something on fire with those things. Of course, such trivial flames couldn't even compare to the blazing passion held deep withing her very soul. Granted, her little exclamation didn't exactly have the effect she was hoping to have on her short statures sidekick.

"Like Gust said, Gust is busy!" How Gust hadn't tried to strangle Nisa right then and there was anyone's guess. But even still, it looked like Nisa wasn't going to back down. At the very least, her enthusiasm was something that Gust kind of admired, kind... of. "Where did you get that?"

"Hm?" Nisa mumbled in response. It was rather odd that Gust had suddenly perked up all of a sudden. All Nisa did was take out a cup of pudding that Lady Neptune had given her after they completed a quest together. What was so special about a cup of pudding that it would catch Gust's attention like that anyway? "This? Lady Neptune gave it to me after we completed a quest together a while back."

A pudding from Lady Neptune? "I see."

"You see what?" Something about that reaction from Gust didn't quite sit right with the heroine of justice for some reason. She just wasn't quite sure why though.

"On nothing. Gust just had brilliant idea on how to make back her money is all. Although Gust could use some help though."

"Oh... Okay," What was that smile on Gust's face? Why did Nisa not like that smile? She would gladly help Gust out if it meant getting her out of such a sour mood, but something about that devious smile her alchemy savvy friend was wearing was quite...disturbing.

A Foolish Business Venture

"G-Gusty. I don't think we should be doing this right now," Nisa said, trying her hardest to persuade Gust into abandoning such a crazy idea. How did she even think this would be a good idea anyway? "This could seriously ruin my heroic reputation if people find out about this."

"Oh hush. There won't be any problem as long as nobody finds out," Was Gust's retort. Why hadn't she thought of this sooner. She was able to make a fortune from selling Uni's panties so just imagine how much she could make by selling some of Lady Neptune's very own pudding! It might have been wrong, but Neptune had plenty of the stuff around, so it's not like she'd notice if some of it disappeared all of a sudden. Knowing her she'd probably just think she ate it in her sleep or something like that, so it was all good.

And that was how Gust and Nisa found themselves tip-toeing their way through the halls of the Planeptune basilicom in the middle of the night. It wasn't easy to convince Nisa to go along with it at first, but seeing as how she had the brain capacity of a fish lady who suplexed boulders for a living, she eventually gave in. It was what made her such a good accomplice.

"Ugh... I just hope Lady Neptune is asleep right now," Nisa could practically see their friendship ending should Neptune actually catch them in the act. Neptune's pudding was like a sacred treasure to the purple CPU, so anyone who so much as looked at it funny was not going to like what happened next... Actually, knowing Neptune, she might actually share some of it, being the kind CPU that she was. "I'm so sorry, Lady Neptune."

"Shhh! Keep voice down," Gust said, putting a finger to her lips. They had already made it to Neptune's living quarters so Gust **really** didn't want to get caught now of all times. Especially not now that the fridge was within thei line of sight. Just a little more to go. "Wait here. Gust will take it from here," whispered the short alchemist.

Nisa couldn't help but force down a gulp as she watched her brunette friend stealthily make her way to the refrigerator. She almost looked like a snake as she slid her way around the room, skillfully avoiding collision with anything that might make even the slightest of noises as she did so. It looked like she had it in the bag, until she unwittingly bumped into a table, knocking over a bag of chips in the process.

Gust had nearly had a heart attack when the bag crinkled loudly onto the floor, no doubt ruining many of the individual chips within from being consumed. Her heart pounded in her chest as she looked at Nisa, who was wearing a similar expression as the alchemist at the sudden noise. Well, at least Gust wasn't the only one who almost wet her pants at the given situation. The two waited there for what felt like hours, but when they looked at the clock hanging on a nearby wall and realized it had only been about five minutes, they breathed a collective sight of relief.

"Phew." "Phew."

"Whozzere?" Cue the second near heart attack as into the room walked the young CPU candidate Nepgear, clutching a pillow in her arms with half opened eyes. The two immediately panicked as the purple candidate came into the room. They couldn't risk failing in their operation now, so they immediately took action and- "Nevah min. Musta been mai imaginashun," Did absolutely nothing as the purple haired candidate left as suddenly as she had appeared, fading away into the darkness of her room.

Now both Gust and Nisa breathed an even heavier sigh of relief now that Nepgear was gone. "Gusty, hurry it up!" Nisa whispered in a louder voice. To which the brown haired alchemist gave her a nod of her head and headed towards the fridge once more, taking even more care not to make noise this time. She had had enough near heart attacks for one day, thank you very much.

After a short while of traversing the area, Gust had finally arrived at her destination, the fridge towering over her menacingly, mockingly even. Almost as if it was just daring Gust to try and steal the valuable treasure it held within. Now all that stood between Gust and all those cups of money-err, custard pudding, was the fridge door. The alchemist slowly took hold of the handle her hands beginning to sweat like crazy. The moment of truth was now, and so, it was time to finish this!

"Yoink," Nisa watched, utterly flabbergasted as Gust quickly opened and closed the fridge door in the blink of an eye. She wasn't sure what had just happened, but when she saw Gust speeding back towards her with a bunch of pudding cups in her arms, she instantly got the message. They had completed their mission and it was time to bail! "Let's go!"

"Right!" Nisa wasted no time in running after Gust as the tiny brunette sped past her. The two had run faster than they had ever ran in their entire lives. And somehow, they were able to do this without making a single sound. They weren't sure how they were doing it, but they weren't exactly paying attention to that when their money-err, lives, were on the line right now!

The trek back down from the upper floors of the basilicom was brutal. They had run the entire time without stopping even once to take a break. By the time they got halfway down they were sweating liquid bullets, yet even then they refused to slow down. And while the trek down was grueling and agonizing as hell, they eventually made it to the bottom floor, the door to the outside world clear as can be. All they needed to do now was make it there and...

"We made it!" Nisa exclaimed happily as the dynamic duo burst through the doors, falling to their knees, gasping for air.

"Yes... We did," Gust replied in between heavy pants. It was a long and painful process, but they had successfully escaped the hell that was the Planeptune Basilicom at night. Through all of their hard work and perseverance, they had come out on top. And more importantly, Gust was finally going to make her money back.

"Well, there's only one more thing left to say then."

"And what would that be, Gusty," Nisa asked as she turned to face her short partner in crime. Quite literal crime now, seeing as how they'd just broken into the basilicom and made off with their friend's treasured snack.

"Gust didn't say any...thing," The short alchemist felt a chill run up her spine, as did Nisa as they realized that there was someone right behind them. They began to feel a dread like no other as the third voice began to register in their minds. They knew that voice! Slowly, they turned to face their aggressor, and were met with a sight that they had never hoped to witness for as long as they drew breath.

There, standing underneath the pale moonlight was a tall figure looming over the weakened duo. Her entire body obscured by shadows. The only feature visible being those vicious, glowing blue eyes that burned with a wicked fury. There standing over the two like a fierce predator on the prowl, was the mighty and majestic CPU of Planeptune herself, Lady Neptune, now as Purple Heart.

"So then... Do you want to have a bad time?"

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!" "AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!"

That night, the two partners in justice turned partners in crime learned not only why the basilicom was so poorly guarded, but they also learned another very important life lesson.

Never steal Neptune's pudding

And, as for Neptune... She made sure to wash off all the blood after she was done. She didn't want to scare Histoire and Nepgear after all. It wouldn't do to scare them like this again after what happened last time.


End file.
